Why is user experience important

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User experience UX focuses on fully understanding how users interact with a brand or an interface. It requires a deep insight into the needs of users, what they like and value their abilities, and also in some cases their limitations. Every interaction produces a user experience event, the goal being to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother. When it comes to the Internet, the importance of User Experience UX cannot be overstated, as a website that is hard to use, is slow or poorly laid out, will cause visitors to leave, whilst also, at the same time, degrading the standing of the associated brand.

User Experience UX in the context of a website is nothing to do with coding, it is about the design of the site and all the interactions that take place on it. The UX design will, of course, need to be produced and that does require coding. However, the UX designers will not normally produce the code, their role being to ensure that the site provides an excellent end to end experience to any user. In a website context, the role of the UX Specialists is to create user-friendly interfaces and ensure that all the interactions on a site are simple, straightforward and easy to understand.

In global terms, they work with marketing, product management and development leaders to create solutions for problems associated with any user interaction. The end-user is the term given to the people who actually use a website, product or service. They could be an occasional user or be someone who uses the product every day.

They not only provide the best view of how well something actually performs, but they are also vitally important as most often or not they are also the customer. UX design is the process of creating and designing products digital or physical that meet the needs of the user, are easy to use, and are a delight to interact with. Its importance is that a good UX can mean all the difference between a product that sells, or a website that is well used and visited, and a product or site that just sits, unused on the shelf.

The two are closely related, UX Design being about User Experience Design, basically the experience a user has when using something. UI Design — User Interface Design, covers the appearance of the interface the user actually reacts with. Both elements have to work together if a website, product or service is to be successful. This is achieved by improving its usability and accessibility , and thus its desirability.

Wireframe UX is the process of producing a visual representation of a user interface, stripped of all images and branding. This allows the UX Designer to more easily define the hierarchy of items on a screen and thus ensure they meet the needs of the user. Before the User Interface UI can be designed, it is first necessary to understand what User Experience UX is required, that is, what are the wants, needs and abilities of the end-user the customer.

A good interface is one that is easy and clear to use. Such an interface not only reduces user errors, but it also makes all important information obvious and contributes to ease of learning and use. We can see that UX design is a subtle science with many factors contributing to it.

But getting it right is critical to the success of an app. Outside of some very specialist apps, the underlying coding is likely to be consistent across the competition. For most users, how well that code translates into an enjoyable and frustration-free user experience is the deciding factor for which app they ultimately choose to use.

Participants on our Professional Certificate Progams undertake a Agile UX Digital Project so they can understand the techniques needed to design market-leading digital products. Visit our Professional Certificate program page to learn more. What is UX and Why is it so Important? Listen, observe and question. There are a number of steps to go through when developing user experience. Here are 8 basic steps to start with:. The first step in the process is getting to know your audience.

This allows you to develop experiences that relate to the voice and emotions of your users. To begin this, you will want to create a user persona, which is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and data on your existing audience. When you finish developing your user persona or personas , you will have the profile of the person s your site is talking to.

Personas should and will take a lot of time to develop. There are numerous steps that must be taken to ensure you have all the data and information needed to develop a useful persona. And keep in mind that they can change over time as your business and customer base evolves. Conduct a study to compare the effectiveness and quality of experience between different user interfaces, including your current site. Something as minor as changing a single word could impact the effectiveness of your page.

With Optimize, you can split your website impressions into two groups and show each of these groups a different version of pages on your site. Once you have a statistically significant sample size, you can see which version is outperforming the other and make adjustments accordingly.

Interview existing and potential users of the system to gain insight into what would be the most effective design. An element on the page that you thought was working might seem completely invisible to the user, so a firsthand view of the way they interact with the website can provide valuable insights.

Ask questions like: How does the website make you feel? Bad UX can take the form of introducing intrusive features in order to persuade the user to take a certain action. While this may get the user to the end goal, forcing them into actions might alarm them or be construed as annoying. Here are 2 examples of some design flaws so you can see the potential frustrations users might go through and how they could have been avoided. If any product or software has you clicking all over the place, hitting random buttons or opening up another tab to work out how to use something - the UX has failed.

Products should feel natural, make sense and feel pleasurable to handle. The UX of these menu bars can be absolutely awful, particularly when there is the added inconvenience of being from somewhere with multiple categories. The standard fix for this is to organize the countries based on natural divisions - like Europe or Asia or even better, to filter the dropdowns to only include countries within one continent at a time.

Duolingo is a leading language learning platform. Their prime goal is to make learning a new language - a big task - a digestible, fun experience with no hassle involved. Their onboarding experience surpasses all other language learning apps. Because they break down the onboarding process into three easy questions, have users start straight away with no payment method, and a goal set for their learning from the get go. This frictionless approach is a world apart from many competitors and thus has won over many users as the process is both intuitive and enjoyable.

Duolingo's user onboarding begins with the product and ends with optional account creation. Amazon Prime excels in delivery services - meeting and exceeding the needs of users internationally.

The UX of their website is clear, concise, and empowers the user to carry out everything they want, creating efficiency through solving problems. Amazon Prime features one-day delivery, free two-day shipping, film streaming, music streaming, and unlimited cloud storage amongst more.

Much like having a personal assistant, Amazon Prime creates ease in so many valuable capacities. By allowing users to purchase with 1 click - they have created a platform that exceeds and outperforms all competitors.

The website feels intuitive and adding products to the cart is simple and easy. With 1-click shopping activated, all user flows are dramatically shortened. Customers can find what they need, click on it, and see the product on their doorstep 2 days later. That process puts a tremendous amount of power in the mind of the user, making the experience addictive. The most important first step on this journey is to pinpoint if UX is really what you want to be doing, or if you realistically feel you would be more successful in graphic design or UI.

The next step is to become well-versed in the tools that are necessary to pursue a career in the field. The best way to do this is to look through job boards and see what requirements they have for a junior UX designer - and then download these programs and learn through free YouTube tutorials. There are a lot of skills that are frequently overlooked so make sure to cover these too. We can also highly recommend tons of great online UX courses for free.

Thirdly, build that portfolio. This is the best way to show your actual UX design abilities and skills. Here are our top tips:. Preparing a portfolio takes time so use the act of making a portfolio as an exercise to learn UX - this way you can hit two birds with one stone.

And some other great free resources that we love. And there you have it - everything you need to get on the UX bandwagon. Is it all worth it? We definitely think so! If you have any doubts about whether UX design is for you, invest your time in building a portfolio and see if it sparks your creative talent.